Is St. Louis World Series hero David Eckstein Jewish?

Jordan Palmer and Team Jonj
Published August 30, 2021

It’s a right of Jewish passage to wonder who out there in the world is Jewish too, especially famous people like actors, singers, athletes, and even social media stars and YouTubers. It’s just something we do.

So, to better answer the question about whether that person is Jewish or not, we’re partnering with Team JONJ at Jew Or Not Jew, a website dedicated to this exact topic. 

David Eckstein

Far be it from us to propagate stereotypes here at JONJ.com, but there does seem to be a certain type of Jewish baseball player. Tall. Power hitter with low average. Serviceable fielder. Slow on the basepaths. Smart, but not tricky. Think Gabe Kapler. Or Shawn Green.Then there’s David Eckstein. Gamer. Dirty uniformed, slap hitting, slick-fielding, quick-moving David Eckstein. In fact, he doesn’t fit the stereotype of the Jewish baseball player at all. And that makes sense.

Because he’s not Jewish.

Not even a little bit. Of course, if one’s Judaism were determined by a name, then David would be MVP of the Hadassah instead of the World Series. But Judaism isn’t name deep. David’s just a hard-working goy playing on Rosh Hashanah and getting slapped on the tuchus after a clutch hit.

Oh well. There are worse people to be accidentally tied to. Eckstein may not be the best player, but he is one of the most popular. So we’ll take the association if we can’t have the man. Just remember to say a prayer thanking G-d on Shabbas that it wasn’t Barry Bonds.

Verdict: Not a Jew.